I took my daughter and two of her friends to a movie, and afterwards they wanted to eat. Wendy’s, they said. It was a restaurant they could afford. One of the girls had an iPhone and pulled out the Urbanspoon app. It, of course, directed us to a Wendy’s ten miles away. No no, Steak ‘n Shake is closer. So we’re driving to Steak ‘n Shake and then pass a Wendy’s. So into the Wendys’s we go.

I’m of the mistaken opinion that a combo at Wendy’s is just fries and a drink. So I pass on a combo and order a chicken sandwich, a side salad, and a bottle of water.

The clerk looks at me and says, “Sir, that’s a combo.” Oops. I now recall that, from commercials long ago, but I haven’t been in Wendy’s enough to get it. Wendy’s has a very flexible combo concept. Now I get it. Yes, the combos are nice and the choice is convenient.

It was in my undergrad days when I first encountered Wendy’s. They spoke about how the burgers were “juicy.” No, they’re not juicy, they’re greasy. Wendy’s has some of the worst burgers on the planet. However, Wendy’s is neat and clean. They have decent chicken sandwiches, decent chicken fingers, good salads, and their flexible combos are nice when you’re trying to avoid fries.

Steak ‘n Shake is, for me, a late night eatery, the kind of place you go after being with “the guys” till 2 in the morning. You can get into one of these and have a nice burger, maybe a shake, maybe some chili. They have shoestring fries that are decent, largely, and the cheese fries can be a lot of fun. In Snellville, however, the Steak ‘n Shake tends to be a teen hangout. It gets very loud, almost unbearably loud when the crowd shows. Because of the noise, I can’t recommend that restaurant. I’ve had better luck with the Steak ‘n Shake in Duluth, near Gwinnett Place.

The day previous I took my family to Alon’s on Ashford Dunwoody. Though I had been there several times, they had never been. And Alon’s is major eye candy. We had sandwiches and my wife shopped for small breads. They had interesting chocolates, interesting cheeses, and I paid a lot more attention to their olive selection than I had previously.

Happiness can be a roast beef sandwich at Alon's.

I’ve been playing with Weight Tracker ODS. It’s a nice little spreadsheet derived from the Hacker’s Diet tools, and I intend to keep using it for a while. It smooths out changes in weight, and predicts the rate of your weight loss, calculates your BMI, and keeps a running total of how many calories you’ve saved. It’s in the smoothing algorithm that I have some nit picks.

It’s an exponential smoothing algorithm and the first thing that becomes obvious on reflection is that it’s very sensitive to the first weight you enter. It seems to assume the very first weight is a very accurate weight and that isn’t always so. The algorithm doesn’t handle missed data very well. If you decide to extrapolate back a month on 3-4 measurements for the month the algorithm doesn’t handle that situation very well. It can only change so much per measurement.

Because it can only change so much per measurement the Weight Tracker curve will tend to be a lagging indicator of your weight. Most of the weight measurements you give it will be below the extrapolated line, as you’re in a weight loss situation. There may be useful psychological reasons for using such an indicator, but I did a heap of curve fitting back in the day. I’m used to lines that straddle data points, that minimize the sum of squared residuals. The curves don’t straddle their data and that just seems a little odd to me.

Chequers is an exceptionally good looking restaurant at the corner of Perimeter Center Parkway and Hammond Road, just south and west of Perimeter Mall and next to the local Fuddruckers. The inside of Chequers is also appealing, with waitstaff dressed in white shirts, black ties, black vests, and knee length smocks. Blackboards seem to sprout from everywhere, and a ton of wood is used to give a luxurious country club experience. This quote from a reviewer at Citysearch sets the tone appropriately:

Luxury reminiscent of New York’s Union Station reigns at this neighbor to Perimeter Mall. Mirrors extend space into infinity; stained glass gives off a soft glow.

Entrance to Chequers Seafood Grill.

Lobster specials during Happy Hour.

Inside, I was with a large group and we were more worried about food. They had a fistful of fresh fish choices. Our waiter announced that halibut had become available and sea bass no longer was on the menu. Others in the party wondered about Chequer’s cioppino, and yet others puzzled out the details of keeping their food kosher. We all ordered. I ordered a cup of gumbo because I like gumbos, and also their rainbow trout, in part because it was a North Carolina product (hence close), and because I’ve had good luck with trout at seafood restaurants.

A good gumbo, flavorful and nicely spiced.

A nice grilled trout.

The gumbo was a pleasant surprise, with bits of sausage, fish, tomato, and okra floating in a nice dark broth.The spicing was what I like, rich and full with enough pepper to let you know it was there. Others had a lobster bisque, a pretty soup with a light brown to tan color. None of it was waiting in bowls by the time the entrees arrived.

I was generally pleased with my trout. It was white, and most trout I’ve seen has been pink. Diet, I’m told, controls the color, and this was a tender, tasty chunk of fish. Googling on pink and white trout turned up a charming New York Times archive from 1884. If our 19th century cousins are to be believed, color has little to do with the flavor of the fish.

Service, if I haven’t said, was very good to excellent.

Verdict: A very good seafood restaurant that delivers the goods. Good to excellent service. Highly recommended.